The present invention relates to a rule-synthesis type, speech synthesis system for effectively synthesizing fluent speech outputs.
Speech synthesis is an important means for man-machine interface. Various types of conventional speech synthesis systems are known. A rule-synthesis type, speech synthesis system is known for its ability of synthesizing and outputting a large number of various words and phrases.
A conventional speech synthesis system of this type analyzes any series of input characters to obtain both phonemic and rhythmic information thereof, and generates a synthesized speech on the basis of predetermined rules.
The prior applications concerning synthesis-by-rule speech synthesis and assigned to the assignee of the present invention are U.S. patent application Ser. No. 541,027 filed on Oct. 12, 1983, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 646,096 filed on Aug. 31, 1984.
However, rule-synthesis type speech is not fluent at transition portions between speech segments such as syllables and phonemes and is difficult for man to understand.